love of God, and with having unjustly maintained that happiness is more frequently the lot of the guilty than of the good: and then, in order to expose to Job his unfitness to contend with God, he exhibits to him a splendid picture of the perfections of the Godhead, especially as manifested in the works of creation.

At length, to conclude the argument, and to establish the truth; at once to convince Job, to pardon, and to bless him; the Divine Being is himself represented as descending,-as casting his eye round on the wonders of creation, and exhibiting to the astonished offender such a display of the attributes of God, of his glory and perfections, that Job, amazed, humbled, confounded, sinks at the feet of his Maker, exclaiming, in the emphatic language of the text, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee: and I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

These words are no sooner uttered than the God of love pronounces sentence between the contending parties. He condemns the opponents of Job, for their injustice and harshness. He pardons and comforts his afflicted servant; commands him to intercede for his adversaries; and, in the end, doubles all the blessings of which by the malignity of Satan he had been deprived. "The Lord," it is said, "gave Job twice as much as he had before," and "blessed his latter end more than his beginning."

II. It will now be my endeavour, in the second place, as was proposed, to suggest SOME OF THE

LESSONS WHICH THIS STRIKING HISTORY IS CALCULATED TO CONVEY.

1. One of the first truths in which the Book

of Job instructs us, is in the unwearied malignity of the great enemy of our souls, the devil.-There is much incredulity as to the existence of such an enemy, even amongst those who profess a perfect belief in Scripture, and, doubtless, the subtle and invisible nature of all spiritual agency is calculated to confirm the skepticism of those who are unwilling to be convinced. But, in this history, the veil is withdrawn from the spiritual world; the recesses of hell are laid open; the movements of the arch-enemy described; and we are permitted, as it were, to see him arming for the conflict, and marching to the assault on the fallen children of Adam. Observe the eagerness and perseverance of his hostility. No anguish of the sufferer softens him; no disappointment discourages him. He brings up new forces to the contest, and wages war even in the face, and against the word, of Omnipotence.And should not such facts as these, my brethren, be a solemn warning to ourselves? It is true, that, as we look around us into the field of nature, little but scenes of calmness, and loveliness, and undisturbed serenity, present themselves. But, nevertheless, the "prince of the power of the air" is abroad and active; and were things invisible at once to assume a palpable form, how many scenes of terror would burst upon the eye! The Prophet, when the multitude saw nothing, beheld horses of fire, and chariots of fire" and, however invisible this spiritual hostility to others, the Christian sees enough to fill him with caution, and prompt him to "watch," and to "pray." The enemy who assailed Job, my Christian brethren, still walks up and down, seeking whom he may devour."

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Can those have any real confidence in this statement, who yet never prepare for the encounter with this formidable enemy; who freely and needlessly frequent the scenes where he may be supposed more especially present; who incorporate themselves with the individuals most abandoned to his influence; who throw away the only legitimate weapons of spiritual warfarewatchfulness, and intimate communion with God? Should we not live, my brethren, in some measure, as if in an enemy's country? Should we not expect temptation in every event and circumstance of life? Should we not strive, through God, to "resist the devil, that he may flee from us?" Should we not solemnly and earnestly supplicate, for ourselves and others, that, when the enemy breaketh in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord may lift up a standard against him ?"

2. A second lesson which is taught by the history of Job, and which indeed may be considered as the moral of the whole argument between the Patriarch and his opponents, is, that trials in this world are not to be considered as any proofs of peculiar guilt. If, indeed, this life were all; if this world were the scene of final reward and punishment; if even prosperity here gave the least promise of happiness hereafter; we might expect that the righteous would be uniformly the prosperous, and every vial of calamity be emptied on the wicked. But, on the contrary, Scripture abounds in declarations as to the danger of prosperity, elevation, and wealth; as to the extensive advantages of affliction; and as to the awful reverses which will take place at the tribunal of God. "Seekest thou great things to

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thyself?" it is said: "seek them not." " In hell the rich man lifted up his eyes, being in torments.” Many that are first shall be last, and the last first." And how emphatically is the same truth taught in the history of Job! Here you are suffered, as it were, to pass behind the scenes of the great drama of human existence, and to watch the movements of Divine Providence. You see who it is that permits the afflictions of the righteous. You hear the permission granted at the very moment when the Divine Being is pronouncing the highest encomium on the individual on whom the blow is to fall. It is not in this case the profligate and detested offender on whom the storm descends. He He perhaps may be lying on the couch of ivory," and "chanting to the sound of the viol," whilst the true servant of God may feel the "arrows of God drinking up his spirit."-And is not this, my brethren, a source of encouragement to the afflicted servants of the Redeemer? Your sufferings are no evidence either of your peculiar guilt, or of the displeasure of your God. It is the language of God himself, "Whom I love, I rebuke and chasten." These trials are the visitations of a Father's hand. They are steps in the process by which he is weaning you from earth, and fitting you for heaven.

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Nor shall these afflictions be blessed to yourselves alone. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the benefit shall be extended to the whole church of God. The sufferings of Job were designed to exhibit the "patience of Job;" and his "patience" to become a standing evidence of the power of religion, to all men of all ages in the pilgrimage of life. And how strikingly has

this object been accomplished! Millions have looked into his life, as into a mirror, and have turned away to bow with deeper and more entire resignation to the whole will of God. And you yourselves, my afflicted brethren, are designed to serve the same important purpose in the great economy of Providence. Rejoice, therefore, that you are "counted worthy to suffer"-worthy to have so high an office committed to you-worthy to have the ark of the Lord even for a moment committed to your hands. Remember, I beseech you, how many are to profit from your example. Remember also who are the spectators of the conflict in which you are engaged, that God and his angels bend from the throne of glory to see who shall illustrate, by patience, and calmness, and perseverance, the faith of a crucified Master. "Seeing, then, we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith."

3. A third lesson most forcibly taught by the Book of Job, is the crime of passing harsh judgments upon the circumstances of others. It is, without doubt, a solemn duty, to avail ourselves of the hour of affliction, in order to carry home the truths of religion to the heart of the sufferer. There is no season in which the vanities of life suffer so complete an eclipse; neither is there any moment in which the mind is so alive to right impressions. On these accounts, endeavours made at this particular period, if conducted with tenderness, and in implicit dependence upon the